Starting mechanism for explosive-engines.



L. U. VAN EIPER.

STARTING MECHANISM FOR EXPLOSIVE ENGINES.

APPLIUATION FILED APR. 5, 1911.

1,122,252. Patented Feb. 23, 1915.

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A TTUR/VEY orda n s LEWIS G. VAN RIPER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

STARTING MECHANISM FOR EXPLOSIVE-ENGINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 5, 1911. Serial No. 618,997.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Lnwrs C. VAN RIPER, of the borough of Manhattan,city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Starting Mechanisms for EXplosive-Engines, ofwhich the following is a specification.

The purpose of this invention is to provide a starting device forexplosive engines that will release the crank handle, or other meansused in starting the engine from the engine'shaft when a prematureexplosion occurs, and is an improvement upon several pendingapplications for Letters Patent filed by me in the United States PatentOflice as follows: Sept. 12, 1910, Serial No. 581,600; Oct. 6, 1910,Serial No. 585,577; January 25, 1911, Serial No. 604,565; Feb. 20, 1911,Serial No. 609,760; Feb. 23, 1911, Serial No. 610,168; Feb. 24, 1911,Serial No. 610,562, and two applications filed by me jointly withAbraham Novick as follows: Nov. 30, 1910, Serial No. 594,834 and Dec.14, 1910, Serial No. 597,335, in both of which I have acquired theentire interest of said Abraham Novick by assignments duly recorded inthe United States Patent Oflice. In this application I have shown a newmethod for preventing the rollers from slipping on a backfire of theengine andin some cases it might be found preferable to the othermethods shown in the several pending applications above referred to.

A further object is to make the releasing means more positive thanheretofore.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a. part ofthis specification.

Like numerals of reference wherever they occur denote like partsthroughout this specification and drawings wherein Figure 1 is a sideview of this device partly in section, Fig. 2 is an end view of theclutch mechanism, Fig. 3 shows several of the parts in detail, F ig. 4is a section on line A-A of Fig. 3.

In the practical embodiment this invention consists of a supportingmember 1, that may be fastened to the front cross member 2 of anautomobile frame or any other suitable place, which carries the crankhandle shaft 3. At one end of the bearing 4 is the non-rotatable rollerrace 5 which preferably has a groove 6 and angular sides for the rollers7 to run in. The object of this said groove 6 is to provide substantialmeans to prevent the rollers 7 from slipping on its race 5, and as thisforms the main feature of my invention, I do not wish to confine myselfto specific details in the rest of the mechanism of the starting deviceas it is very evident that these said specific details can be variedconsiderably without departing from the scope of this invention whichrelates particularly to means for preventing the releasing frictionrollers from slipping upon back fire.

pon forward rotation of the crank handle 11 in the direction of arrow 12of Fig. 1 and arrow 13 of Fig. 2 the radially slidable clutch members 14and 15, which are guided upon each other by the plungers 24 and 25, arerotated by the flattened portion 16 of the crank handle shaft 3, at theopposite end of which the crank handle 11 is fastened. Upon continuedforward rotation of the crank handle 11 the rollers 7 are forced back tothe deeper ends of their inclined seats 17 and 18 thus allowing theclutch members 14 and 15 to slide apart until the wedge shaped frictionshoes 18 and 19 grip the friction disk 20 which is fastened to theengine shaft 22,in the wedge shaped groove 21 and any further continuedrotation of the crank handle 11 is then transmitted to the engine shaft22. Should a premature explosion occur while the en gine shaftv 22 isbeing rotated forward as set forth, the engine shaft 22 and disk 20 willbe rotated backward while the clutch members 14 and 15 will be preventedfrom following by means of the friction rollers 7 becoming wedgedagainst the non-rotatable friction surface 5. This wedging of thefriction rollers 7 causes the friction shoes 18 and 19 to release 20thus allowing this friction disk 20 to slip backward without takingalong the clutch members 14 and 15 and the crank handle 11. It will benoted that upon back fire there will be a tendency for the frictionrollers 7 to slip on the non-rotatable friction surface 5 but areprevented from doing so in the preferred form as shown in Fig. 1 bymeans of the wedge shaped groove 6 in which the rollers roll. When theengine starts forward under its own power the clutch members 14 and 15release the friction disk 20 by means of the disengaging plates 23causing the clutch members 14 and Patented Feb. 23, 1915. I,

the friction disk 15 to contract on account of their speedloeing greaterthan the speed of the crank handle shaft 3.

What I claim, is

In a starting device adapted to be used in connection with explosiveengines, the combination of an annular friction surface upon orconnected to an engine shaft, a cooperative friction clutch member atall times rotatable both forward and backward, means for rotating andfrictionally connectingsaid cooperative clutch member to-said firstnamed friction surface by a single op- Copies of this patent may beobtained for five cents each, by addressing the eration, a non-rotatablefriction vsurface, a plurality of rollers and springs for dis-engagingsaid cooperative clutch member from said first-named friction surfaceupon backward rotation of said engine shaft by its engine and a groovein one of said clutch members to prevent the rollers from slipping whenthe engine backfires.

LEWIS C. VAN RIPER.

Witnesses:

ABRAHAM NOVICK,

JOSEPH E. MORHARDT.

Commissioner of Iatent" Washington,-D. C.

